


Little Adventures of Little Tsu-chan

by DeadEyedChaos



Series: Tsu-chan [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, But maybe not the way you think??? idk, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dead Portgas D. Ace, Dealing with trauma and fear and misplaced guilt, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Found Family, Found Family Mugiwara Kaizoku | Straw Hat Pirates, Gen, Luffy has a sister, Minor Original Character(s), Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates As Family, Non-Canonical Violence, One Piece Universe, POV Female Character, POV Original Female Character, POV Third Person, Portgas D. Ace Needs a Hug, Protective Monkey D. Luffy, Protective Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Protective Portgas D. Ace, Protective Sabo, Straw Hat Pirates are a family and you will never be able to convince me otherwise, Tsukihime is mute and she's staying that way, Tsukihime loves her ragtag group and is always tired, with a healthy dose of friendship and love and heartache
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:48:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadEyedChaos/pseuds/DeadEyedChaos
Summary: Tsu-chan has lots of memories; many that haunt her, many that give her joy. But all of them shaped her into who she is.These are little snapshots into Tsukihime's relationships and how she grew up. With the scraped knees, the tears staining her sleeves, the laughter from 3 bright boys and the whole world that seems so far away, Tsuki learns the warmth that she never had.
Relationships: Dadan & Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo & Original Female Character(s), Dadan & Original Female Character(s), Dadan Family (One Piece) & Original Female Character(s), Makino & Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo & Original Female Character(s), Makino (One Piece) & Original Female Character(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Monkey D. Luffy & Original Female Character(s), Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Original Female Character(s), Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo & Original Female Character(s), Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Original Female Character(s), Portgas D. Ace & Original Female Character(s), Portgas D. Ace & Sabo & Original Female Character(s), Portgas D. Ace/Original Female Character(s), Sabo & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Tsu-chan [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980391
Kudos: 8





	1. Dirt

**Author's Note:**

> These are going to be little shorts that may/may not fit into the main story later down the road.
> 
> These little side stories are something I hope shows everyone how Tsukihime was shaped.
> 
> She is one of my precious characters and I hope she can bring a little something to other people too.
> 
> These don't fit into the main stories timeline and sometimes will have snippets of things further in the story and even after the 2 year time skip.

Her boys always seemed to be dirty, they relished in it in fact. After so long of being at sea and refused the basic hygiene practices until she traveled here, she was majorly appalled by that. And she was even more appalled when she realized Dadan usually forced them once a week to bathe, and then even _more_ when Dadan told her it’s now her job to round them up for bathtime.

If she was being honest, it's not like she _didn’t_ get the appeal of rolling around in the dirt and wrestling with animals. It was endearing, she loved their carefree smiles, but she hated the _smell_. It reminded her too much of sweaty, unwashed bodies huddled in the hull of the ship with fear tainting the air; even with the boys sweat twinged with grass, wood smoke, and fur.

So she forced them, 2 baths a week. Sabo was the easiest to convince, she just puppy-dog eyed him and he folded like a travel chair. Ace was the next hardest to convince, ‘why do I have to do this? It was just fine once a week!’. Though for all his grumbling and grumpiness, he relented quickly when he realized how more tactile she was with them after the two baths a week. Luffy was a never-ending difficulty; it was like butting heads with a literal bull-shark, painful, and an experience you really didn’t want to repeat. She learned baths for a devil fruit powered individuals weren’t pleasant, even if it wasn’t seawater. Instead, she begged for one bath, followed by a scrub down with a cloth and a blast from the hose the second time which was the best idea she _ever_ came up with.

The mountain bandits were always there to witness her aggressively scrub at Luffy and fiercely hose him down, saying it was entertaining. They made bets on how long it’ll take before Luffy gets bored with the arrangement. What they didn’t know is that she has mastered the art of negotiating with Luffy with the power of meat (courtesy of her wickedly good puppy dog eyes toward the two older boys), so that always made Dadan the winner in those bets which earned Tsukihime pocket money to buy her sketchbooks and colors.

Tsuki understood the appeal fully years later, the cool dirt being curled into her palm as she rested against the grass. Her trauma addled brain too raddled with even the slightest smells relaxed after years of safety and retraining. Sweat didn't remind her much of dark, creaking hulls, instead, it reminded her of hard work and games and the comfort of someone next to you. Too often over the years, it was overwhelming to be so close to others and she had to find a spot to sleep outside, animal calls along with the open sky above her was the balm she needed. The hardest part was learning that Dadan and the others didn't care where she was and that she only came back at a reasonable time. It was terrible and freeing all at once, so much control given to her with nothing asked _of_ her.

Yes, it wasn't _dirt_ she hated. It was _dirtiness_ and the fear she felt around it.


	2. Mirror

Tsukihime gazed at the little mirror that Makino got her for her 11th birthday. It was round, with little ivies carved in the wood frame and handle. It was a beautiful gift to go with her wall mirror from Dadan the same birthday, and one she kept away from Luffy's rough handling like a protective mother bear.

Makino and Dadan got both for her when Makino noticed she would glance in the windows to smooth down her hair and her clothes. It would be embarrassing to get caught by the boys so she would always do it when she trailed a little behind or when she came down to help Makino with her bar.

Tsukihime didn't understand at 11 _why_ she suddenly wanted to be put together, more so than usual. All she remembered is thinking that Ace was getting older and many of the teen girls they encountered in the city giggled at him more and more. They had beautiful dresses, fans, and headbands and Ace puffed up with a flush on his face when they stared a bit too long.

It was an ugly feeling, especially when she knew she wasn't a frumpy girl. She was practical, especially living out in the forest. So practical, in fact, that she had hurt Dadan's feelings for years by refusing to wear dresses, who only felt less hurt when Tsukihime wore matching clothes with her. She bathed more than anyone she knew, she always had cleaner clothes than her bandit family. Makino and Dadan even made sure her long hair was brushed and pinned up every day.

But her heart twisted when Ace smiled back charmingly, even with the flush on his face. When he learned not to strut like a chicken but like the beginnings of a man who had the world at his feet. 

The mirror more often showed her a face that she wanted nothing to do with. Eyes that were more eerie than pretty, those eyes which flashed ghostly in the sun, hair more wild than straight even with her constant braiding and pinning and updos. She couldn't place any of her features to her parents anymore, they are too fuzzy in her memory. She only remembered her mother's elegant hands that she now sees herself growing into and her father's dreadful eyes.

She practiced her smiles in the mirror, downcast eyes that fluttered, hands elegantly hiding her giggling face. She tried for years to perfect those looks the city girls had. She never got caught by anyone, but that didn't stop her embarrassment of what she was doing. It was hard to look into her own face and think she had any type of prettiness that compared to girls that didn't tumble around in the forest.

It was harder still when all she could think of is _'I wonder if I look more like my Mother', 'Do I have her chin? Or my Fathers?'_. Not even years of staring deep into her own eyes so hard that they burned could stop her from hating them to the core of her being. 

Though, she still loved the mirror. Yet she hid it away more often than not the older she got, even with those ugly feelings still simmered from time to time in her preteen and teen years with her boys. The more painful comparisons toward her parents stopped her from looking in the mirrors after she turned 13, besides the bare necessity of braiding her own hair.

The handheld mirror ended up in her pack when she leaped into her brothers' little boat, wrapped lovingly with fabric that Dadan wished to make into a dress for her when she turned 18.

She only took it out when she was alone on the Merry in the moon-light, looking at new bruises on her body and a new scar on her temple to forehead. Watching her face slim more and more with a growing paranoia, worry and tension the closer they got to the Red Line.

Tsukihime even ached for it the two years when she was separated from the Sunny and her family. She had other mirrors sure, how else was she supposed to wrangle with her short hair growing longer and longer. But the mirrors lacked the warmth of her ivy carved wood and the memory of her childhood face to her younger teen face.

After two years apart from it, it felt heavier than she remembered, even more so when she pulled it up to her face and saw herself in her childhood relic. It was painful and exhilarating all at once. In grief she had to wrap it up again, heart tearing in a way she hadn't felt since Ace died. 

The mirror she practiced flirting with, comparing herself to her parents and city girls, the one where she could feel the child-like puppy love for a boy who died so tragically, a gift from her two role models who just wanted her to feel pretty and like a regular girl who fluffed up for boys and a night out with girls. The mirror that traveled with her through the Grand Line and showed a girl that still ached for the boy she no longer loved in a puppy-like way but more grown and sure.

Now it showed her her heartache she held for 2 years, the hardness of a woman that went through hell, and curling marks upon her face that showed her triumph at living and surviving through that hell, and those dreadful eyes that looked even closer to the glaring cold of her father.

She never wanted to open the wrap around the mirror again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm loving the short stories than I am of the actual chaptered story lolol  
> Which I'm not too surprised about, it's kinda overwhelming to start an OP fanfic with how many chapters/episodes it already has. The short stories aren't as 'pressuring' to do, I guess.  
> And it's always fun to flesh Tsukihime out a bit more than I have!


	3. Hair

Tsukihime had short hair when she ended up on the island with three boys she would learn to love.

It wasn't ratty and dirty like the day Garp picked her up. He had a female marine scrub her down and clean up the hair they all could tell had been hacked off in a hurry by unsteady, untrained hands. None of the marines had to ask if it had been her because it was too apparent it had been. 

When she ended up being shoved into her boys' life, she at least had clean hair and a clean face. It was so short that they even had the passing thought she was a boy until Garp punted them and told them she was a girl. That was her first attempt at a smile.

Having short hair was the worst time of her life. She had no bangs to cover her ghostly eyes, so she had her eyes turned to the ground more often than many wished. But she also knew that short hair was the only way she wouldn't have her hair used against her in any way.

Her head still ached with the memory of large, cruel hands that curled around her strands and tugged and twisted. Luffy wanted to rub his hands in her hair since it was as short as his. The only thing saving him from a black eye was his devil fruit powers. She ran away and hid because she was mortified by what she did and fearful of how they would all react.

She heard Dadan explaining to the boys in soft murmurs when she snuck back to the cabin that night of why she was so fierce about people touching her head and hair. She was humiliated to have them talk about her like that, but she was also thankful to have someone else explain when she could not. So humiliated that she turned back and went to the little tree that she found to hid in until supper the next day.

She learned weekss later they looked for her all day after she hit Luffy because both Ace and Sabo thought it was hilarious such a tiny thing like her could punch so hard and because she was a tiny thing in a large forest full of meat-loving creatures. Then all day again when she didn't come back home that night. She patted her boys' hands when they told her, Ace and Sabo burning with a blush, and Luffy still huffy with the fact she was able to hit him.

Her hair grew quickly with the boys putting meat on her plate and Makino bringing her vegetables and fruit, which Tsuki gleefully ate. She hadn't eaten veggies and fruits for months until she landed on the marine ship. She learned to love them since it was almost a delicacy to her now.

With such luxury of bathing and regular food and the feeling of safety, she was able to grow out her hair long. She suffered the boy's teasing of calling her ‘prim and proper’, ‘intensely lady-like for a mountain girl’ because of her bathing practices and in turn her intense hair grooming. She thought it a small price to pay for her little batch of heaven that gave her regular baths and food and safety. She had to learn to let Dadan help her when her hair was long enough that it tickled her neck and started getting tangled too easily in things when she was tumbling after the boys.

The more tactile she grew with the boys and bandits after weeks of being with them and touch starved for gentle hands for over a year of cruelty, the more inclined she was to let them touch her head. Though no one dared other than Dadan and Makino.

Sabo shut up about her being uptight about cleanliness after he realized how _soft_ her hair was. It was a complete accident that he even ended up touch her hair and head since he followed her unspoken boundary intensely. She got hooked into a dead tree and neither of the other boys noticed when they disappeared further into the forest. Sabo nearly had a meltdown. He didn't want to leave her alone out here but he also didn't want to touch her hair when only Dadan had the guts to after permission. 

Tsuki blinked almost too calmly at him, just standing and waiting for him as he paced and sweated. He finally took notice of her standing so relaxed that he made his way to her and just asked if he could touch her hair. She smiled so serenely at him that after gently detangling her from the branches he had teary eyes and shaking hands. Tsuki never teased him about it because she also felt emotional, because not once did she flinch or tense as he touched her head and hair.

Oh, Sabo still teased her gently when the other boys were there, but he _hoarded_ the fact away from them that her hair was like silk even through the curls. The quiet bonding of him marveling at it during late nights when the other two slept soundly next to them. She grieved so heavily when she was never able to fall asleep to the pets ever again when they lost him to the world. Ace, for all his awkward love, could never replicate how easy it was for Sabo to untangle her hair and Luffy was always too rough. But she endured the roughness when she heard small sniffles from him for weeks after Sabo passed. Even years later, she would jolt awake wondering how many more times would she imagine Sabo’s small awe-struck hands curling through her hair.

Ace and Luffy both flipped out after a few weeks of Sabo keeping the bonding moments away from them. Luffy was more vocal about why she let Sabo but not him touch her head now. She replied quickly in her notebook that he was just oblivious to the fact that Luffy himself has been touching her head for weeks now by his accidental shoving and them wrestling together that usually end with either of them in a headlock. She told Ace that he's been absentmindedly patting her head and leaning his own against hers when they all huddle to sleep together when she feels lonely.

They were flabbergasted and stumbled over their words but their growing smiles told her how touched they were with her progress and growing affection toward them. Ace and Luffy left the untangling and pets to Sabo, even though she felt more than once Ace tangle his fingers in her hair when he thought she was asleep.

Her hair grew longer and longer as she grew older, as well as Ace's hands growing more tender in detangling and caresses and Luffy being more affectionate with her with hair ruffling and headlocks and teasing her hair from her braids.

The bandits in the years after Sabo passed had started teased each other with her long hair, tickling their noses to egg on fights with each other, and faking having mustaches. Dadan, who hid books about hairstyling in her own vanity, taught her more and more complex updos and braids. Luffy, after Ace left, tried to be gentle but she punched him instead when he only ended up tangling her hair into a rats nest that left Makino in laughter and Dadan in upset hysterics.

She loved her long hair, wavy and curly as it was. She had it because she missed it after that cruel year and it helped her remember the fading memory of her mother brushing her hair.

Tsukihime definitely loved her hair, even if it was impractical in the mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This short story is actually going to have a part two to it! I don't know if I'll post it right after this one or later though!


	4. No Name

She learned quickly that anything that made you stand out from the other children on the street made you a target. Hair, eyes, cleanliness were the top contenders for uniqueness among the street kids. She had all of those, plus her name.

So she disregarded her name first, forcing her to lose so much of herself in the beginning. Having no name made it hard to connect with the other kids, even more so when most of the kids didn't know how to read and she couldn't talk. There was safety in numbers but she couldn't connect well enough and that left her vulnerable. To cover any other unique markers she rubbed mud on herself, concealing her easily bruised smooth skin. It was harder to hide the blood that came with rough living. 

She didn't really have no name, instead, she had many.

"Girl."

"Brat."

"Kid."

"Rascal."

"Rat."

"Punk."

"Little bitch" was a huge contender with "Thief" after a couple of weeks.

It wasn't until Garp picked her up, scooping her from terror and hunger and uncertainty, that she could even begin to try and think of who she was again.

He asked for her name when he saved her. She said nothing, just blinked up at him.

He asked again a week later after she was cleaned up and ripping into food like a starved animal. She ignored him purposely that time.

He asked again, a bit more forcefully a month later as they were leaving the Grand Line. 

"I'm tired of calling you, girl. What is your name?"

She looked up from her notebook into his blue eyes. His face wasn't unkind, but it did have a stern quality with hair that was white from his age. After a month of being with him and his navy crew, she relaxed a little, writing notes for them in her child scrawl that was a step above the average child. She still huddled away from many of them, especially the men. She refused to be touched and refused to speak. Thankfully, many stayed clear each wary of sparking panic in her.

She didn't want to tell him her name, it was the last piece of closeness she had with her mother. She sacrificed her hair already, she became a dirty street kid who hopped ships and ran away from her subjugator. So many have just taken and taken from her, she didn't want to give something up anymore, especially something that only caused her pain and aching want.

So she shook her head, and wrote, ' I don't have a name.'

His face fell as he leaned back heavily into the ship’s railing. 

He called her many names as they sailed for the next two weeks.

"Ai." She shook her head.

"Aki." She refused to answer to that one.

"Asuka?" Absolutely no.

"Chiharu? Aina? Alana? Alice? Evelyn? Fionna?"

And each one she refused, even as he became more and more desperate, even starting to call her food names to get her to laugh. Which she didn't, couldn't.

He was defeated when they pulled up to port, slumped shoulders as he carried her down from the ship after a month of traveling. He mentioned he was coming home earlier than planned, mostly because of her, to bring her to a new home. She pitched a fit, but in the end, was scooped up into his large arms and huddled into his neck.

He mused a bit as they traveled up a mountain trail, wondering if he should just call her Dawn after the island they are on now. He kept saying he wanted to name her before she met her caretakers because he didn't know if they would even give her a nice, pretty name for "a nice, pretty girl like yourself, sweetheart". She only just shivered in his arms, knuckles whitening as she gripped him tighter and tighter.

She didn't get a name from Garp. 

She didn't get a name from her bandit caretakers either.

Instead, it was made by three boys who huddled in front of her scratching names into the dirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not too happy with this but it's been subjected to like 10 redos, so I must let go of it lolol


End file.
